Rizwan emerging as new top gun of Pakistan cricket

Rizwan has it all. The grit, the endurance, the acumen, the finesse, and the ever-growing will to rise and rise amid adversity.

And the man is proudly showcasing these traits on the field across all formats. Mohammad Rizwan indeed is the newest star on Pakistan's cricket horizon.

The professional way this 28-year-old rock-solid lad from Peshawar in recent times has precisely developed his skill set with his natural never-say-die attitude is exemplary and rare in our part of the world.

Agile as a leopard, the stocky player remains productively active and involved behind the stumps as well as in front of it. Batting however has been his biggest plus while he is part of a batting line-up that normally struggles.

A plucky nature backed by the game's acumen have enabled him to adapt to various playing conditions against different opponents with marked success. So powerful has been Rizwan's willow work of late that the right-hander is now regular facing the new ball with captain Babar Azam in fast white-ball contests.

Bear in mind Rizwan made his ODI, T20 debuts in 2015 and started his Test journey back in 2016 and he remained in and out of the national team several times as Sarfraz Ahmed was the first-choice national wicketkeeper during that period.

Two fighting hundreds by Rizwan in a 5-0 ODI whitewash at the hands of Australia in the UAE on the eve of the 2019 World Cup surprisingly could not impress the selectors.

But he is a man of steely nerves and genuinely positive character which he superbly displayed during 2020, the renaissance year for him. And then came the valiant player's meteoric rise to fame - since the New Zealand tour in late 2020 that has stunned as well as pleased fans and the game's experts alike.